Koc Falls Most in Six Months on Family Sale Plan: Istanbul Mover

May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Koc Holding AS, Turkey’s biggest group
of companies, dropped the most in almost six months after its
chairman said members of the founding family may reconsider
selling about 100 million shares.

Koc fell 4.3 percent at 11.25 liras at the close in
Istanbul, the biggest slump since Nov. 14. Almost 13.3 million
shares changed hands, more than three times the three-month
daily average volume, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The company may look into its plan to sell shares “in the
coming few months to a year or so,” Chairman Mustafa Koc said
in a Bloomberg TV interview with Ryan Chilcote in Cape Town
today. Koc family members withdrew their plan to sell a 3.94
percent stake on March 13 because “the environment was not
ready for the desired price that we were envisioning to sell,”
he said.

A sale of the same stake would be worth about 1.18 billion
liras ($660 million) at yesterday’s closing price.

The Borsa Istanbul National 100 index fell 921 points, or 1
percent. Koc Holding, which accounts for 3.7 percent of the
gauge, brought the gauge down by 148 points, data show.

“A stake sale could be through a private placement or a
secondary public offering,” Mustafa Kucukmeral, an analyst at
Is Investment in Istanbul, said in a phone interview today.
“The shares may come to the market directly or indirectly,
that’s what creates downward pressure on the price.”

Kucukmeral has a hold recommendation on the stock, with a
12-month price estimate of 10.26 liras. Eight other analysts on
Bloomberg recommend buying Koc shares, while 15 say hold and
four recommend selling, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Overseas Investors

Koc hired Deutsche Bank AG’s London unit as sole manager
for the canceled sale in March. Price offers during the
accelerated bookbuilding failed to “rise to a satisfactory
level,” triggering cancellation of the sale, the family members
said in a statement to the bourse on March 13.

The securities were being offered to overseas institutional
investors at between 9.50 liras and the market price, according
to terms obtained by Bloomberg News.

Koc shares have advanced 21 percent this year,
outperforming the 15 percent gain on the benchmark index,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg.